Algae Control

[Zac]

Hey all,

I got a couple live plants and ever since I began added fertilizer regularly algae has been a pretty big issue. Looks like it may be blue green along with some hair algae possibly. I’ve reduced using easy green to once a week because I have a very small amount of live plants. I’ve reduced feeding to once a day. Light is at 10 hrs a day. I did a deep clean a week ago and it’s starting to look bad again. Any ideas on how I can curb this algae growth? I have a clown pleco but he’s not keeping up to well. I would add some shrimp but they would probably get eaten by my other fish.

[KBOzzie59]

What light are you using?  What size tank?

Initially I'd say drop light to 6 hours a day.

[lefty o]

cut the light down to 6-8 hours a day will go a long way to slowing down the algae. clown pleco's arent big algae eaters, they like to nibble on wood more, so it likely wont do much for the issue.

[Zac]

On 12/27/2021 at 12:18 PM, KBOzzie59 said:

What light are you using?  What size tank?

Initially I'd say drop light to 6 hours a day.

I have a hygger planted tank light in a 30gal. Will 6hrs if light be enough to keep my dwarf sagittaria alive?

[lefty o]

the whole deal with tanks with plants and lights is finding the balance of light, and nutrients.  pretty much no tank needs more than 8 hours of light. the thing is finding how long to leave the light on, pick a length of time, 6, 7, or 8 hours and monitor it for a week or two and see how much new algae grows. if you still grow a lot of algae, cut it back another half hour, etc. no matter what, you will always grow some algae, so find where you limit the algae growth, and still keep your plants growing.